llms-full.txt is a file that makes the complete text of a website or documentation available in one Markdown document. It complements llms.txt, which only lists pages with links. The name is a convention used by some providers and is not part of a standard.
At a glance
- Type
- File (convention of some providers)
- Values
- Markdown, the full text of a documentation in one file
- Used in
- Documentation platforms, for example Mintlify
Last checked:
How do llms.txt and llms-full.txt differ?
The llms.txt proposal was published by Jeremy Howard on September 3, 2024. It describes /llms.txt as a Markdown file with an H1 title, a short summary in a blockquote and sections with lists of links. The name llms-full.txt does not appear in the specification, including version 2 from August 10, 2026. The spec proposes that pages offer a clean Markdown version at the same URL, with .md appended or replacing the file extension.
Documentation platform Mintlify generates both files. In its documentation, llms.txt is an index of pages with links and descriptions, and llms-full.txt combines the entire documentation into a single file as context. Its structure is not prescribed, so each provider decides how to order the pages and what to include.
| File | Standard or proposal? | Location | Purpose | Who reads it (documented) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | IETF standard: RFC 9309 (September 2022) | / | tells crawlers which URLs they may fetch; per the RFC not a form of access authorization | Crawlers; Google's common crawlers always respect it for automatic crawls |
| llms.txt | Proposal (Jeremy Howard, 2024; version 2 from August 2026) | / or in a subpath | Markdown overview linking to Markdown versions of pages, for AI agents | per the proposal mainly coding agents; Google Search ignores it, says Google; Lighthouse only checks the fetch |
| llms-full.txt (this term) | no specification; not part of the llms.txt proposal, a convention of individual vendors (e.g. Mintlify) | / (Mintlify also serves /.) | entire documentation as Markdown in one file | no reader documented; Google Search doesn't use such files, says Google |
| ai.txt | Individual IETF Internet-Draft (June 2026, expires 2026-12-14), not a standard; predecessor by Spawning (2023) | /. (draft), / (Spawning) | AI usage preferences (training, scraping, indexing, caching), licensing, attribution | no reader documented in primary sources; Google Search doesn't use 'AI text files', says Google |
TDMRep (tdmrep.) | W3C Community Group Final Report (2024-05-10), not a W3C standard | /., HTTP header tdm-reservation or HTML meta tag | machine-readable reservation of text and data mining rights (Art. 4 DSM Directive) | parties performing text and data mining (per the specification) |
| security.txt | RFC 9116 (April 2022, informational, not standards track) | /. | contact for reporting security vulnerabilities; required fields Contact and Expires | Security researchers |
| ads.txt | IAB Tech Lab specification, version 1.1 (August 2022) | / on the root domain, subdomains as needed | declares the companies authorized to sell the site's ad inventory | advertising systems and buyers (ad system crawlers) |
| humans.txt | Initiative (humanstxt.org), no formal specification | / next to robots.txt, optionally linked via rel="author" | names the people who contributed to the website | people who want to know who is behind the website |
Only robots.txt, security.txt and ads.txt are based on a finalised specification (IETF or IAB Tech Lab). Google states that Google Search doesn't use new machine-readable files or 'AI text files' and ignores llms.txt files, which neither help nor harm Search visibility. TDMRep is a technical way to express the reservation under Art. 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/790. Not legal advice. Sources: RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol; Google: Overview of Google crawlers and fetchers (last updated 2026-06-12); The /llms.txt file, v2 (llmstxt.org); llmstxt.org: Changes (v2, August 2026); Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features (last updated 2026-07-10); Chrome for Developers: Lighthouse llms.txt audit (2026-05-05); Mintlify: llms.txt and llms-full.txt; IETF Internet-Draft draft-car-ai-txt-wellknown-00 (2026-06-12); W3C TDMRep Community Group: TDM Reservation Protocol, Final Report 2024-05-10; RFC 9116: A File Format to Aid in Security Vulnerability Disclosure; IAB Tech Lab: ads.txt; IAB Tech Lab: ads.txt Specification Version 1.1 (GitHub); humanstxt.org. Last checked: .
How widely is it used?
It is a community convention. Google’s Search Central documentation says you do not need to create new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in AI features such as AI Overviews. In the sources checked, major AI providers have not confirmed that they read llms-full.txt. Having the file therefore does not guarantee visibility in AI answers (assessment).
Example
The Anthropic documentation publishes such a file at platform.claude.com/docs/llms-full.txt. When fetched on October 6, 2026, it was larger than 10 MiB, which is more than fits into the context window of many models.
A freely chosen structure could look like this:
# Example Inc.
## Page: Pricing
URL: https://example.com/pricing
(Markdown text of the page)
## Page: Contact
URL: https://example.com/contact
(Markdown text of the page)
Sources
- The /llms.txt file - llmstxt.org (Jeremy Howard, published 3 Sept 2024, v2 modified 10 Aug 2026)llmstxt.org
- llms.txt and llms-full.txt - Mintlify Docsmintlify.com
- AI features and your website - Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- llms.txt, explained - Towards Data Science (secondary source)towardsdatascience.com
- Changes – llmstxt.org (v1 to v2, August 2026)llmstxt.org
Last updated: